


first impressions

by cloudedhues



Category: Psycho-Pass
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2015-08-01
Packaged: 2018-04-12 08:30:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4472444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudedhues/pseuds/cloudedhues
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ginoza character study.</p>
            </blockquote>





	first impressions

**Author's Note:**

> Originally for Day 1 of #tsunemoriweek on Tumblr.

He barely takes a moment for first impressions. He is practical, all business stating the conditions of the case, apologizing obligatorily that her first time on the field had to be this.

On paper, it says she is the best match suited for the job. 

He doesn’t doubt what the System says. But of course theory is entirely different from practice. 

When he looks away as the paddy wagon’s doors open, there’s a stray thought that doubts her strength to grip such a leash. Ginoza has been right countless of times before. And he is sure as she stares at all of them, wondering and uncertain, that they’ll devour her alive. 

“I hope you’re not a fool,” he says much later. 

Prove me wrong, he thinks.

She doesn’t. 

So he squares his shoulders and plays the villain to her chosen role for every allowance she gives them to tamper with her soft heart. He has no time to dwell on the disappointment however. Not while the crime situation of their city is worsening by the day and he is still unable to control the disturbances. There is only so much he can do. 

He and the city brink closer and closer to a tipping edge as both their numbers flood above the line.

His control wavers. Or perhaps it was never there but a facade to a pathetic attempt when he aims judgment at a man who is-was his friend. He can only watch dumbly when she pulls the trigger in his stead–the proverbial hero to clean up the erroneous mess of the villain. He doesn’t know what to think. 

When did they change places?

When did she start being right and when did he start being wrong? 

Or had he ever been right to start with? 

He doesn’t have to wonder long. The answer comes anyway soon enough.

They leave bits of it behind almost in succession. It seems funny how damnation can also bring purity, drag it to him if must be. Truth as always has horrible timing. And it finally finds him when everything is too late, at the final destination so far from their shiny, plastic city with its shiny, plastic promises; in grief; in small pieces that come to him day by day; in the way his eyes are such easy targets for mistaken identities. He grips his left prosthetic into a fist, phantom pains curling around the weight of something lost. He crushes his backup glasses with his right and marvels at how utterly fragile his skin is there. 

He watches his palm bleed, and it’s the most human he’s felt in a long while.

When he is released from the facility, Akane is the first one to greet him, smile on her face that’s starting to look more fond and gentle rather than foolish and weak. 

“I’m afraid I did not have much use to you as an Inspector. And I can safely assume that that’ll hold true as an Enforcer now.” They are in the car when he makes that confession, quick and short as it leaves his mouth before he can lose his nerve.

She turns her head to regard the sights at the window, and he turns away as well, right hand itching on his knee. When she answers him, it takes him a second to realize that she’s looking directly to the place where the frames had once blocked his eyes. 

“I think I will have to respectfully disagree to that.” Her smile deepens, almost curling into a tease and he wonders why he had lived without it before. “I believe you will outdo yourself quite well. And I bet I can make you believe that too.”

“I doubt that.” His voice is dry. He clears his throat.

“You won’t be saying that soon enough.”

“Prove me wrong,” he challenges.

So she does. 

Unsurprisingly, she does.


End file.
